Welcome to the 2018 Riga Post-Tournament Report – a great day was had by all we witnessed some cracking football played in a superb atmosphere. The tournament was #95 for us in Europe and our third in the Baltics after previous visits to Riga (2016) and Vilnius (2017). We'd had winners from France and Belarus respectively – who would claim the title in 2018?

We had 20 teams booked up and the group phase of the tournament would consist of four groups with 5 teams in each group. The teams finishing 1st and 2nd in each group will progress to the Cup competition. The teams finishing 3rd and 4th in each group will progress to the Plate competition. Both the Cup and Plate would be played on a knock-out basis with Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final.

The teams finishing 5th in each group will play for the Wooden Spoon on a semi-final and final basis.

We began the day's action on Pitch A with Group A and it was quite a game to kick us off. We had debutants RFT of Latvia against Fleet Street Elite of England. The former were on debut whereas the latter were experienced in our events. That experience counted for nothing though as RFT began like they meant business.

They were 4-0 up by half-time and 9-0 up by the end of the game. Dimitrijs Sostaks was the main threat with 4 goals but he was ably assisted with a goal each from Edgars Jurcenoks, Dzintars Putning, Arturs Levenbergs, Andreas Pagors and Aris Zanders. A clean sheet for Dmitrijs Bokse made it a perfect start for the home team.

The gauntlet had well and truly been laid down by RFT in the previous game. Spider Mans Ressies and Johnsbridge FC were the two teams tasked with following this up.

These two teams had both played at the 2016 Krakow Trophy but had managed to avoid each other on the day. Johnsbridge FC were runners-up in the Plate in Krakow whilst Spider Mans had two teams (both won their group) and had a Cup Runners-Up and a Cup Semi-Final finish to their name. You could argue results in Krakow would make Spider Mans Ressies favourites for this encounter.

Here in Riga though it proved to be an even game. The teams shared four goals in the first half with Liam Stevens and Richard Eggleston on target for Spider Mans and Miles Lowry scoring a double for Johnsbridge FC.

In the second half the teams still could not be separated with Steve Wildman (Spider Mans) and Alex Young (Johnsbridge FC) both hitting the back of the net.

The 3-3 draw was a solid start for each team's European campaign.

The final team to get underway was Lilchicago of Lithuania. They became the second team from Lithuania to appear in our tournaments when they made the journey to the 2017 Mallorca Tournament. They were hugely impressive in the group phase with 4 wins and 1 draw in their group games. They went on to win Group A with 11 goals scored and just 3 conceded. In the Cup Quarter-Finals they drew 1-1 in normal time but left the competition via a penalty shoot-out defeat.

Lilchicago appeared for a second time in 2017 at the Vilnius Tournament. They were second best in the group this time but had done enough to qualify for the Cup with 7 points from a possible 12. In the Cup Quarter-Finals they drew 1-1 with an English team again (Burritos) but this time they were successful in the penalty shoot-out to progress. The Cup Semi-Finals saw them see off 2 times eurofootballfives.com champions Skidmarks with a 2-0 victory. In the Cup Final they met 3 times eurofootballfives.com champions CIS Committee of Belarus. A 0-0 draw saw us into penatlies again. After a crazy shoot-out it was the men from Minsk who were victorious. Could Lilchicago go one step further in Riga?

They were up against Fleet Street Elite who had a chastening 9-0 defeat in the first game and so probably didn't need a game against the high quality Lithuanians. It was another high scoring game and sadly for Fleet Street Elite they faced an onslaught. Simonas Stankevicius, Sarunas Krasauskas (2), Danas Kulisauskas, Liudas Masiliunas and Mantas Garsvinskas were all on target. It was not all one way traffic though as Darren Clarke scored the first of the day for Fleet Street Elite.

Lilchicago would extend their lead after the break with Sarunas Krasauskas, Danas Kulisauskas, Liudas Masiliunas and Mantas Garsvinskas all boosting their tally. Final score, 10-1.

RFT (Lat) opened up with a stunning 9-0 win and were looking to make it 2 wins out of 2 against Spider Mans Ressies (Eng). The English team were looking to build on an opening game draw and climb above their opponents if they could secure a win.

Spider Mans Ressies are o ften entered as Spider Mans & Great Hawk and have been the second squad of the Spider Mans group since the 2015 Lisbon Tournament when they took their tournament bow. It will be the 5 th time they have entered a second team in our tournaments.

In Lisbon, they drew a really tough group and despite just 1 defeat in 5 games finished 3rd to miss out on the Cup. In the Plate they won their Quarter-Final 3-1 to reach a Semi Final against Frank Hirth B (could easily have been a Cup Semi-Final on another day) but Great Hawk went out on penalties. They also appeared at the 2016 Krakow Trophy where 4 wins and 1 draw saw them win Group A. A 3-0 Quarter-Final win over Cudny Jozef (Pol) saw them meet their Eagles squad in the Semi-Final where they went out 3-0.

Great Hawk also saw a re-branding in Amsterdam to Spider Mans Ressies. They finished second in Group B behind eventual runners-up Spain United. They then went out to eventual winners Benecke in the Cup Quarter-Finals. Tough draw. They most recently appeared at the 2017 Budapest Fives where 4 draws out of 5 hindered their progress in Group A. It meant they finished 5th of 6 teams to qualify for Plate. A 1-1 draw in the Quarter-Finals preceded a penalty shoot-out to Budapest Celtic Greens.

They would need to summon up the form from Krakow 2016 and Amsterdam 2017 in this one. It was not to be though as Dimitrijs Sostaks and Kristaps Zakrevskis gave RFT a 2-0 lead. If Spider Mans Ressies could pull one back they could maybe start a comeback but in the second half an Edgars Jurcenoks strike made it 3-0 and secured all 3 points for the Latvian team.

The game that took us to the halfway stage in Group A was Johnsbridge FC versus Lilchicago. In a similar contest to the one above, it was a team with a heavy first game win trying to make it 2 wins out of 2 versus an English team trying to build on a good point from their opening fixture.

Johnsbridge FC were making their third eurofootballfives.com appearance having made their European debut at the 2014 Budapest Fives. They were hugely impressive on debut finishing second in their 6-team group to eventual winners and (now) 4-times @eurofootball5 winners CIS Committee of Belarus (who defeated Lilchicago in the 2017 Vilnius Tournament final). Their group also featured France's The A Team who have reached two eurofootballfives.com finals. In the Quarter-Finals they drew home team Csabagyongye and went out by the narrowest of margins, 1-0. Csabagyongye incidentally would become Budapest Fives champions 12 months later in 2015.

Johnsbridge FC then appeared at the 2016 Krakow Trophy. It was tough going in the group phase but they had drawn the proverbial “Group of Death” that featured eventual winners Tinniedad & Tobacco, a strong Italian team (Football Bassano MMIII) and the pick of the local Polish challenge (Cudny Jozef). Those 3 teams finished joint top on 12 points. Johnsbridge FC finished in fifth position and qualified for the Plate. In the knock-out phase they won 1-0 in the Quarters versus FC Funtime (Pol), 1-1 (3-1 on pens) in the Semis over another Polish team – Tea Time. In the Plate Final they missed out on the winners' medals, 4-2, versus Misfits FC.

Johnsbridge FC had the credentials to do damage to Lilchicago but the Lithuanians were flying after a 10-1 opening win. They were on top at the end of the first half, 3-1. Johnsbridge FC were not altogether out of it at this stage but in the second half Lilchicago pulled away from their opponents.

Sarunas Krasauskas bagged 4 for his team with Simonas Stankevicius (2) and Danas Kulisauskas also adding to their goal tally. The final score was 7-2 and Lilchicaho lead the way in Group A.